Pakistan former skipper and all-rounder Shahid Afrdi has said that Junaid Khan’s way of protesting was wrong but even he would have done the same, after the left-arm pacer was excluded from the 15-member squad for the ICC World Cup 2019 in England and Wales.
Junaid took to Twitter to express his disappointment at the decision as he posted a picture of himself standing with tape on his mouth and the caption read, “I dont want to say anything. Truth is bitter. (Sach karwa hotha hai).”This tweet has been since deleted by the star Pakistan cricketer.
“In my opinion, what Junaid did was not right, there was no need to do that you can protest while remaining silent as well,” Afridi told reporters.
“But probably I would have done the same if I was at his place. He has a lot of cricket left in him. Obviously, he was disappointed since this would have been his first World Cup and I think management should have handled it in a better way,” he added.
Junaid Khan was included in Pakistan’s provisional ICC World Cup 2019 squad ahead of Mohammad Amir and it seemed certain that the 29-year-old fast bowler will be travelling for the tournament. However, that was not the case as the selectors decided to replace Abid Ali and Junaid Khan with Asif Ali and Mohammad Amir respectively.
Both the bowlers were not included in the initial squad announced last month but Aamir, who is yet to recover from chickenpox, was named for the one-day series against England which Pakistan completed on Sunday.
The selectors had also discarded Wahab Riaz from the tour to England but after the thrashing given to the Pakistani pacers in the one-day series they apparently had a change of mind.
Pakistan Squad: Imam-ul-Haq, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Hafeez, Shoaib Malik, Sarfaraz Ahmed(w/c), Imad Wasim, Hasan Ali, Shadab Khan, Wahab Riaz, Shaheen Afridi, Asif Ali, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Amir